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Pictures, Maps and Text from Volume III of The Antiquities of England and Wales by Captain Francis Grose. I also have Volume I. I bought Volume 3 from a rather unscrupulous (it seems) book dealer in Cornwall, who neglected to mention the missing maps.

Captain Francis Grose is also known for compiling dictionaries. I have a copy of his Provincial Glossary. He also wrote a dictionary of slang; Project Gutenberg has made a text version of an 1811 version of this (I have a fac simile edition) and I have used this as a starting point, corrected many errors, and put it online as the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

A bookplate (ex libris) from inside the front cover of Volume III of Grose’s Antiquities. People who collected books would often have these printed onto labels that they would paste inside the covers of the books in their library. This one shows the crest and Latin motto, dat deus incrememntum, which is, God giveth increase. The motto is not uncommon, but I found a Web site showing the same crest (in colour) and claiming it to be of the Ottley Family, here. the Royal College of St. Peter at Westminster (Westminster School) has the same motto but a different crest. The sideways-facing helmet at the top of [...]The Grammar of heraldry (Samuel Kent, 1718) [more...]

“This tower was erected anno 1079, by William the Conqueror, as a keep to a fortress begun by him in the year 1067, to awe the citizens of london; the architect was Gundulph, bishop of Rochester. Fitz Stephens has falsely [...] [more...]